From cruise operators to airlines: Reopening' stocks tumble because of variant fears Reuters - Companies benefiting from the economic reopening of this year's businesses, including AMC Entertainment, United Airlines and Carnival Corp, were hammered by fears over a new and possibly-vaccine resistant coronaviruses variant.
The variant, discovered in South Africa, caused several countries to tighten border controls and investors to dump Asian and European equities for safer assets.
U.S. stocks were due to join the selloff, with carriers United, Delta Air and American Airlines losing between 8% and 9%.
Hyatt, Marriott and Hilton fell between 4.7% and 6%, while cruise operators Carnival, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line plunged 10% each. AMC lost 6.2%.
Scientists say that the variant has an unusual combination of mutations, may be able to evade immune responses and may be more transmissible.
The economic recovery has been quite impressive and the one thing that could knock it over completely would be a more dangerous variant. Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial, said that investors are selling in front of potential bad news. "Time will tell how worried we are," said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial.
Investment gods have given investors a second chance to sell investors because the stocks that did well in the COVID lockdown, like Peloton or Zoom, are probably going to do well again, said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research.